Patent owners can use legal means to attack people and companies
infringing on their patents in various ways. Possible targets
include not only those producing infringing devices but also those
importing,
distributing, and selling them. E.g., the patent owner can request
that shipments of such products be confiscated by customs.

A product is also considered to infringe if it doesn't do so directly,
but if it can be shown that it is intended to produce an infringement
with it. E.g., if you sold an MP3 player without software but had a
link to the player firmware (with the patent-protected MP3 codec)
on your Web site, a court would probably still find you guilty.

It is therefore important that Qi-Hardware and affiliated organizations
stay clear of things that could produce this sort of problems.

Proper handling of patented material is also an indicator of quality as
it shows that the project is serious and cares about not exposing those
affiliated with it to risks.
This in turn can help to bring new members and companies aboard.

While it is impossible to eliminate all risk of infringing on some
patent (and even then, a lawsuit that's ultimately "won" can be
ruinously costly), there are areas in which problems are much more
likely than in others.

One particularly bad area are audio and video codecs. MP3, MPEG4, and
H.264 are all unsafe to touch.

As new patents may surface, previously quiet patent owners may become
feral, and as Qi-Hardware may expand into previously untouched
minefields, more items may have to be added to this list.

In general, we're very small fish and hardly worth the effort to hunt
down and suck dry, which can safe us from the more outrageous claims.
But then there's no telling what a particularly hungry shark may go
after.

An obvious way to invite trouble would be to ship and sell a device
that includes patented material. Therefore, distributions installed on
the device must be "clean".

Similarly, if there is a distribution that contains such offending
material, Qi-Hardware cannot host or officially endorse it.

The same goes for patches or instructions to add patent-encumbered
functionality.

Links to offending material are usually considered to be equivalent to
the material itself. What degree of linking is safe and what degree
is not, is open to interpretation. E.g., a link to Google, would be
fine, even though you can find all sorts of things via Google. A link
to Google with instructions to type a specific search expression would
probably be unsafe. A link to a site with a list of links to MP3
codecs would be unsafe.

All this applies not only to "official" content but also to
user-provided content. E.g., if someone posts a link to such
problematic material, this post would have to be removed from the
archives.

Sites that are not affiliated with Qi-Hardware are free to do or say
whatever they like - the risks they incur are all theirs.

Also, potential infringements are only relevant if they relate to
products of Qi-Hardware. E.g., it would be okay to mention - good or
bad - examples of other companies in a discussion about patent
avoidance.

Note that, if a site that previously didn't host problematic content
starts to prominently feature such material, it would be necessary to
remove any links.

It would be impractical and undesirable - in many ways - to try to
censor every posting or IRC message before it even reaches the logs
or archives. The IRC channel doesn't even use infrastructure provided
by Qi-Hardware and thus has its own rules.

However, material that reaches the archives (including the IRC log
hosted by Qi-Hardware) has to be screened and offensive material has
to be removed in a timely manner. Also, if such material were to
appear there all the time without any action being taken to dam the
flood, this would also increase the risk of legal conflict.

By being considerate in what you upload and post, you can help to make
the moderation work easier and protect the companies participating
in the Qi-Hardware project from harm.